Tangible and intangible items have long been swapped or exchanged. For example, in the past a farmer might provide a doctor with a dozen eggs (tangible item) in return for the service (intangible item) of treating a family member. Exchanges of tangible and intangible items, however, were generally difficult. Traditionally, they required, at least, a negotiation and a valuation of the items. Also, the introduction of and wide use of a standard, liquid, and trusted coin or paper currency made it much less appealing to exchange tangible and intangible items.
Recent advances in technology and communications have made exchanging all types of items easier, including tangible and intangible items. Further, other technological advancements have produced tangible and intangible items that are like-kind property. Like-kind property is property that is similar in nature or character, and generally used for the same purpose. Exchanges of like-kind property can be more advantageous than exchanges for currency. For example, in the United States, exchanges of some like-kind property are tax free.
An example of like-kind property that is now available as both a tangible item and an intangible item is copyrighted intellectual property. Copyrighted intellectual property can include, but is not limited to, songs, software, games, movies, or novels. Copyrighted intellectual property is now sold on both tangible and intangible media. Tangible media can include, but is not limited to, compact discs (CDs), digital video disks (DVDs), or books. Intangible media can include digital files and these digital files can include, but are not limited to, MP3 files or e-books.
For a long time, owners of copyrighted intellectual property on tangible media have been allowed to exchange these tangible items. Recently, however, content providers of copyrighted intellectual property have also allowed users to lend or exchange their intangible media to other users. For example, some e-book providers have allowed a user to lend an e-book to another user for 14 days.
As more and more like-kind tangible and intangible items become available for swapping, systems and methods are needed to manage the lending and swapping of tangible and intangible items.